DIGITAL DIGEST

WHAT YOU’RE MISSING

New restaurant coming to Jefferson and Tyler

Polar Bear Ice Cream building on Zang damaged in storm

Work in progress: Batgirl mural in Bishop Arts

Can you find your neighborhood on this 1900 map of Dallas?

City sued over Kessler Steps; renovation to cost up to $180K

The Dialogue

CITY SUED OVER KESSLER STEPS, RENOVATIONS COULD RUN $180K

“In the Oak Cliff I knew – before the arrival of the Good Ship Pretentious, you would more likely find one mowing a neighbor’s yard or tending a common area such as this. Now we have a pack of latte-slurping, self-appraised busy bodies calling code enforcement and filing lawsuits. Poor babies, I would load up the Land Rover and move to Beverly.... Drive that is. Hurry, you can get there before your latte curdles!” — Smokey

“Why don’t the property owners produce the survey from when they purchased their properties — my guess is that the Kessler Steps are indicated on the survey as an easement in favor of the City of Dallas.”

— MRR

Bishop Arts Building From 1927 Demolished For Parking

“To Mr. Garcia, I have been to your business to pay my respects to the loved ones I’ve lost; the parking is ridiculous. I mean, the last thing the mourning family wants is to worry about the Calvario Funeral Home parking. Most of the Oak Cliff community loves that your funeral home is so close to the area, but I feel so aggravated to see how disrespectful it has become. I know I don’t want to give you my business.”

—Marisol

Want

Kings Hwy

40. 915 Stewart

41. 906 Salmon

42. 2165 Kessler Ct

43. 1418 Eastus

44. 2166 Kessler Ct

45. 1015 N. Clinton

46. 1130 N. Clinton

47. 1210 Middlebrook

48. 927 N. Edgefield

49. 924 Knott Place

50. 2142 Kessler Pkwy

51. 2912 W. Clarendon

52. 724 Woolsey

53. 1938 Marydale

54. 2102 Kessler Ct

55. 1207 Middlebrook

56. 127 N. Willomet

57. 1674 Kessler Canyon

58. 2537 Southwood

59. 1022 N. Montclair

60. 806 N. Winnetka

61. 1511 N. Clinton

62. 806 Knott Place

63. 835 Salmon

64. 1302 E. Canterbury Ct

65. 944 N. Montclair

66. 1221 Sylvan

67. 2176 Kessler Ct

68. 1943 Marydale

69. 1034 N. Winnetka

70. 1517 Junior

71. 1214 Kings Hwy

72. 906 Stewart (pending)

Self-taught sculptor Jason Mehl lives in Oak Cliff, for now

Jason Mehl is sick with wanderlust.

Since graduating from Rockwall High School and then Stephen F. Austin State University, the self-taught sculptor has traveled extensively. He lived in Costa Rica and worked as a tour guide. He’s toured extensively in India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

And he lived for almost five years in South Korea, teaching at a university.

He returned to Texas from Portland, Ore. two years ago after the birth of his nephew here.

“I thought it was going to be a couple of months,” he says. “And here it is two years later.”

Mehl now works as a fulltime artist in a live/work studio near Lake Cliff Park, but he is an environmental scientist by education and trade. His current collection of work, called “Intuitive Geometry,” contains sculptures ranging from 6 inches to 14 feet tall. They are made of varying materials but all have a similar shape and feel.

Smaller ones are carved from clay and cast in bronze. One is a massive piece of glass. Mehl also works in ceramic and a traditional Korean art form, Hanji.

“What do they look like to you?” he asks of the sculptures.

Bones? Alien bones? Driftwood?

“Yeah, I’ll take that,” he says.

They look like something from nature that you can’t quite place.

Mehl is a rock climber and cave explorer — he also likes surfing and kayaking — with tales from all over Asia. He went to Korea originally to teach English but wound up taking a job teaching environmental science. That’s where he learned some traditional Korean sculpture techniques from a student who was a generational sculptor. He had known for years that art was his true passion when, in 2008, he decided to focus on sculpture.

Abstract sculpture appeals to him because it imposes upon space and forces the viewer to interact with it, he says.

He carried an 8-foot unfinished sculpture from Korea to Oregon, not sure what to do with it or whether it was finished. And then he brought it all the way to Dallas, where he decided it was finished, and it became the first piece in the “Intuitive Geometry” series.

“I spend a lot of time outdoors, trying to get as far off the beaten path as possible,” he says.

As a college student in Nacogdoches, he saved money for future travels by living in a tent instead of paying rent. He paid for that with his health, however, contracting Lyme disease, which has taken years to overcome.

That experience did not keep him indoors, though. He slept outside in a hammock in Costa Rica and took risky kayak trips in Vietnam.

Settling in Dallas for a while has allowed him to bring the focus of his work to a point. He’s got a show coming up in April at JM Gallery Downtown.

Catch him while you can.

“I start to feel like I have to go somewhere,” he says.

—Rachel Stone